I am not that surprised. I think policies like this that require a health department visit sometimes serve to break through anxiety. To people who are all-in with not vaccinating, to people involved in a movement of not vaccinating (who believe they are a plot or that the government is covering up information that they are unsafe for a eugenic purpose those ideas) are not going to vaccinate no matter what. I don't think they are the individuals who are the target of public education campaigns. But I also don't think they are the individuals who acquire the most vaccine waivers.
People like ourselves are not prevalent in web searches. We aren't prevalent her at MDC either for that matter. When new mothers etc. want to research vaccine decisions they take to the internet (in todays society) and what do they find? One side of the evidence is very easy to understand a graph showing vaccines and autism correlation is easy to understand, a scientific article showing that the correlation is not causation and the studies that have been done have consistently found no link, is difficult to understand and not likely to be found. Also once you find one link to a vaccine critical source, it becomes a rabbit hole, where each link produces 10 more and pretty soon you are convinced because you aren't seeing anything from the other side. That is why I think our forum is important, so natural minded vaccinating parents or lose starting to lean toward vaccination don't feel they are the only one since every voice and link is producing the alternative viewpoint.
I think that many parents who have read a lot of natural news stories and seen a lot of non-vaccinating memes, can have their mind changed by the health department spiel. Because when they go in they find it isn't a plot, these people aren't wealthy Dr. Evil's who are hell-bent on damaging children. They also show scientific evidence in understandable terms.
So while I am sure SOME of the uptake is because some people found it easier to get the waiver than the vaccine before, I think it a very small part of it. I think a bigger part is finding a way to break through the group think.
